buffum and p



BUFFUM & THORP.

Ore Washer.

Patented Oct. 1, 1850.

UNITE earns A A. BUFFUM AND P. THORP, -OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

DOUBLE-ACTING ROCKER FOR WASHING GOLD.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 7,678, dated October 1, 1850.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, ARNoLn Burrow and PHILIP THORP, of the city, county, and State of New York, have jointly invented and constructed a new and useful Improvement in the Gold-Washing Rocker and Pan Used for Separating Gold from other Substances; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which constitute a part of this specification.

Figure 1 represents the gold washing rocker in the form of a packing trunk say twenty four inches long, fourteen inches wide, and eighteen inches deep, which throughout this specification we call the trunk.

Letters A, A, represent two rockers of ordinary form attached to the bottom of the trunk.

Letter B represents an upright stake attached to the side of the trunk to be used as a handle to give it a rocking motion. The body of the trunk in which the pan is placed we call the lower section, and the lid of the trunk in which the screen is placed, we call the upper section. When in operation, there is no cover on the top of the upper section.

Letter C, represents a screen for sifting the auriferous earth, placed inside of the upper section.

Letter D, represents a pan suspended on hooks or pivots in the lower part of the lower section near the bottom of the trunk, about twenty four inches long fourteen inches wide and eight inches deep, of square form, with flat bottom and one end and both sides standing nearly perpendicular, the other end of the pan stands in the position of an inclined plane, its highest point being elevated about two inches above the level of its bottom, and occupying about one third 7 I of the length of the pan.

Letter E, represents a flange three inches wide at each end, and one inch wide at the center, running horizontally across midway of the inclined plane of the pan, constituting a barrier to the passage of gold or of quicksilver when the water and sand are running off.

Letter F, represents a rod attached to the extremity of the inclined plane, rising about 4 inches. Letters G, G, represent two cordsfastened to the rod F, and carried upward over two pulleys H, H, at the upper edge of the lower section of the trunk, these cords are then turned horizontally in opposite directions and passed over two more pulleys I, I, near the opposite sides of the trunk and are continued ed in opposite directions to two stationary fastenings K, K, outside and independent of the trunk. The cords being secured to these fastenings in such position as allows the bottom of the pan at the point where it connects with the inclined plane to rest on the bottom of the trunk when the trunk stands on a level, will raise that end of the pan when the trunk is rocked in either direction from its level position, so that the pan, being rocked with the trunk in one direction, and rocked by the action of the cords and fastenings in the cross direction gives to the pan a double rocking motion in cross direction, at right angles, lengthwise and sidewise. This double rocking motion produces an agitation in the water, which sifts the gold to the bottom, and while it has a powerful tendency to mingle the earthy mould with the water so as to float it away with the current, it gives the greatest security to the safe deposit of the gold at the foot of the inclined plane, either with or without quicksilver in the pan.

Letter L, represents an open space in the lower part of the trunk, at the end to which the inclined plane points, through which the water and all floating substances pass away.

Letter M, represents a middle conductor placed in a sloping position in the upper part of the lower section of the trunk, to conduct the water and auriferous earth near to the perpendicular end of the pan.

VVhatwe claim as our invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent is' The combination of the movable pan with the gold washing rocker, so arranged and operated as to give to the pan inside of the rocker a double rocking or vibrating motion, sidewise and endwise, substantially as described in this specification.

CHAUNCEY SHAFFER, F. G. LUOKEY. 

